The story
- Proto-West Germanic · inherited from*biobanā
- Old English · inherited frombufan
- Middle English · inherited frombove
- English todaybove
Probably an apheretic form of above. Alternatively, this word may continue Middle English bove, boven, from Old English bufan, from Proto-West Germanic *biobanā, from *bi (“by”) + *ufanā (“from above”). Compare West Frisian boppe, Dutch boven and Low German baven, boven.
Words from the same roots
Old Englishbufan all →
Bowbrick
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.